Review of high risk mental health patients starts

A major review of mental health services in England has started to better identify and treat patients who might pose a danger to themselves or to the public.

About 1000 suicides a year involve current or former mental health patients, about 20% of the national total. About 55-60 murders each year are committed by mental health patients, slightly less than 10% of all murders.

One of the most serious recent cases involved the murders of four people by Daniel Gonzalez in 2004. At his trial, his mother told the court she had written to social services asking, “Does my son have to commit …